Knights and Bikes is a co-op or single player action adventure game from us! "Us" being Rex Crowle (Tearaway, LittleBigPlanet) and Moo Yu (LittleBigPlanet, Ratchet & Clank). And we'll be joined by additional collaborators that we know and trust, like "Audio Daredevil" Kenny Young (Tearaway, LittleBigPlanet) and composer Daniel Pemberton (Steve Jobs, The Man from UNCLE, LittleBigPlanet). And hopefully we'll be joined by you as well!

Inspired by games like Earthbound and Secret of Mana and films such as The Goonies, we would like to take these, along with of our favorite childhood memories, and channel it all through our years of experience making games.

The key ingredients of Knights and Bikes:

In Knights and Bikes, you can play as Nessa and Demelza on their quest for the truth behind the medieval legends of Penfurzy, an island on the fast track to financial ruin and literal destruction. Recruit a party of creatures from all walks of life, enlist and inspire deflated islanders, and embark on an adventure to find the hero the island so desperately needs.

Teaming up with Demelza's pet goose, and the pickled severed head of a fallen-knight, they fling Frisbees at demons, trick-out their bikes to reach new locations, and increase their abilities with each islander they rescue.

Add the costs (including shipping) of the add-ons to your pledge amount without changing your tier.

That’s it. We'll ask for all the details in the backer survey after the campaign.

Trailer Super Cut

Some of our lovely friends and fans helped us put together a new, extra shouty cut of our trailer!

Knights and Bikes is currently confirmed for PC, Mac, and Linux. It's also coming to Playstation4, and all pledges at, or above, the Digital Game Plus tier are eligible for the PS4 version.

We will update this section if and when we add more platforms.

Knights and Bikes takes place on the island of Penfurzy, an island off the coast of Cornwall, where great medieval legends have driven centuries of culture. Inspired by Rex's childhood, it is a place where fact and fiction are inextricably intertwined.

As such, the island has a case of multiple identities. On one hand, it is a home for the islanders who live a life full of tradition, history, and pride. But on the other hand, it is a tourist attraction that is expressed almost as self parody through arcades, crazy-golf, and other fleeting diversions.

Our story takes place in the 80s when the island's most prized relic is proved to be fake, raising questions about Penfurzy's legends. We pick up in the fall of 1987, the end of the island's worst tourist season ever. All the mainlanders have gone home. Well, all except one.

As Nessa and Demelza begin their search for the truth behind the island legends, they unleash mysterious spirits that possesses many of the island's inhabitants, human and animal alike. It's up to our heroines to figure out what these spirits want, where or even when they're from, and ultimately how to stop them.

Knights and Bikes is filled with characters for you to meet (or be) from all walks of life. They each have their own goals, personalities, and abilities. Here are some of the cast:

Nessa is an orphan from the mainland who follows an old keepsake to the island hoping to learn who she really is. As an outsider, she clashes with many of the islanders, but not Demelza, who becomes a fast friend.

Sample Ability: Frisbee-Lob

Demelza is a video game-obsessed believer in the Penfurzy legends. She comes equipped with a Power Glove in her quest to fight for the honor of her favorite video game hero. She lives in the island's Caravan Park with her father Gryffyn, but dreams of the mainland and all the comic-books and video games that might exist there.

Sample Ability: Puddle-Splash

Captain Honkers is Demelza's pet goose. He has an incredible sense of smell and an insatiable appetite for seaweed.

Sample Ability: Peck

The Pickled Knight claims to be the great hero of legend, but even if true, spending many years trapped in a briny rockpool has robbed him of his looks (and abilities).

Sample Ability: Ankle Bite

Islanders come in all shapes and sizes, each trying to support themselves on this remote island--from the volunteer running the mobile library to the bike-shop-owner. But as things start to go wrong on the island it will be up to you to save them from the ancient spirits. And some may have special talents or items that could be helpful to your quest.

Sample Ability: Worrying

Knights and Bikes is an Co-op Action Adventure Game where players will explore an island on foot and on bikes, find treasure, battle through "dungeon" areas, rescue islanders and upgrade their gear in the town hub.

Local Co-Op - Play through the entire game alone with AI helpers controlling the other characters in your party or have a friend join you on this mysterious adventure.

Explore - Jump on your bike and ride through the ominous wilderness areas of the island following the ever trusty beak of Captain Honkers.

Treasure - Trade collected treasure to acquire new abilities as well as upgrading those you already have by employing the various odd abilities of rescued islanders.

Battle - Keep an eye on your health as you fight your way through treacherous dungeons using your improvised arsenal. Execute your combat abilities against possessed creatures to free them from their violent spiritual possession.

The rewards we're offering are as important to us as the game, so everything is made by us for you, and not farmed-out to third-parties. For instance, the plushies are handmade by Rex and his partner Emily.

Demelza Plush!

And the Original Rex Art where Rex will draw whatever your heart desires. For example, what if someone named Miyamoto wanted to know what Demelza would look like in a Samus suit?

Example Original Rex Art

And the Art & Design Book that we're offering (as either a download or as a physical copy) is made up of direct scans of the various journals we keep while dreaming-up and making the game, so you'll be able to really see the thought-processes behind creating the game, how the characters and systems took shape, as well as some of the crazier ideas that didn't happen.

Preview of some pages from the Art/Design Book

In other words, its definitely not just a bunch of screenshots from the website saved into a book!

Inspired by memories from our youth, we want to create a great adventure about a band of kids for whom imagination knows no limits and friendship is king. We remember a time when games were something that you would play with your mum, dad, brother, or neighbor and together you could join forces and defeat the ultimate baddie.

We wanted to capture the feeling of forming a group, being part of something bigger, but also finding out who you are and where you fit into the world. Of course, a game about friendship wouldn't be complete without the ability to play with friends. We hope that we can give our players an experience that brings them together like so many video games anchored some of our best childhood friendships.

The theme of the game is inspired by several classic movies of the 80s like Goonies and ET, films that show the adult world from a child's perspective, and the ways in which they try to understand it.

And the art-style is a mixture of Rex's own natural style, combined with influences from Eyvind Earle, Ronald Searle, Alex Grigg's exceptional "Phantom Limb" short film, and the production-design of Paranorman.

We've been extremely lucky to have had the opportunity to meet fans of our games in real life. It's an amazing feeling, but when we hear what they loved most about the game, we wish they had been there the entire time.

Kickstarter gives us an opportunity to recruit a group of fans who share our passion for this project. They can cheer us on and keep us moving forward when we are feeling down with misdirected doubt. More importantly, they can let us know if we're losing perspective and veering off track.

On such a small team, it's critical to not only get more voices, but the right voices. We're hoping that Kickstarter is a great way to find you all.

Rex Crowle served as the Creative Lead on both Tearaway and Tearaway: Unfolded and was a key artist on the LittleBigPlanet series. He also created the epic productivity app, EpicWin and worked on Black & White, The Movies, and Fable at Lionhead. Apart from games he's produced animated films for the likes of Disney, MTV, and the BBC.

Moo Yu was the Lead Gameplay Programmer on Ratchet & Clank: Tools of Destruction and a Gameplay Programmer on LittleBigPlanet. He also worked on Moshi Monsters and created the iPad multiplayer game Ring Fling.

Knights and Bikes is an idea that we've been thinking about for a while. We have created a few different areas in the game to establish the range and consistency of the art style. We love the way it looks already, but will continue fine tuning it over time.

On the gameplay side, we've used these various areas to experiment with three of the core aspects of the game. We have built a conversation system to talk to the islanders, deal with quests, and purchase new gear. We've created a basic dungeon as a testing ground for our many enemy and weapon prototypes. And we've created a sprawling forest to get a feel for the explorational aspects of the game.

Risks and challenges

This is a very ambitious project, especially for a team of two, but we definitely feel like we are up to the challenge. We each have over a decade of experience making games and have worked together for many years on a number of projects. Not only do we have experience making games with the backing of a studio, we have also shipped games with smaller teams like EpicWin and Ring Fling.

Even though there are only two of us, we do cover a lot of disciplines, each willing to dive into any task that we think will result in making a better game. In addition, we are being smart about using off the shelf solutions (like Unity, Spine, and Yarn) when possible.

We also have a great support structure. On the personal side, we have great friends and family who have supported us through difficult projects before. On the development side, we have many friends in other development studios big and small who can give advice and lend a favor when in need. Speaking of which, we have some stretch goals in mind to bring in some specialists to help with certain aspects of the game to make it even better. But we'll talk about that if the time comes.

Overall, we believe that with the combination of our passion for the project, support from our fan base, and help from our friends, we will be able to complete Knights and Bikes to the level of our extremely high standards.

FAQ

We did a quick prototype of online co-op and got enough working to realise what a substantial undertaking it would be. So it's not part of the initial target, but is something we're considering for a stretch goal if we get to that point.

Absolutely! We're going to make sure that the single player experience is great and expect that's how a lot of people will play it. And we'll make sure that your AI buddies are smart enough to keep up with you. :)

Kickstarter is not a store.

Pledge £25 or more
About $36

Digital Fan Pack

In this digital fan pack, we will include a digital art book showing art from the sketchy beginnings to the polished end, a full digital soundtrack, and a set of backer-exclusive high-resolution wallpapers for mobile and desktop.

Kickstarter is not a store.

Pledge £40 or more
About $57

BFF Pack

Celebrate our heroines' new friendship with backer exclusive costumes for Nessa and Demelza. Also, we'll give you an extra PC, Mac, or Linux key to give to your real life BFF. Last, but not least, you'll gain access to our beta release for PC and Mac.

Kickstarter is not a store.

Pledge £80 or more
About $114

Tube of Goodies

Midway through production, we will ship you a cardboard tube of goodies to show off to all your friends. This will include a backer t-shirt, an A2 (16.5" x 24") movie-style poster, stickers, and embroidered badges.

This tier also includes a backer-exclusive costume for Captain Honkers.

Kickstarter is not a store.

Pledge £125 or more
About $178

Collector's Special Edition

Receive a Special Edition custom-designed flash drive shaped like the Sword of Legend which you can unsheathe to access the game and all your digital goodies. This will be beautifully presented in a collector's box that will look great on any shelf.

In addition, you will receive a specially designed card game to play with friends to bring Knights and Bikes with you wherever you go.

Kickstarter is not a store.

Pledge £200 or more
About $285

Limited Edition Art Print

Receive an A2 (16.5" x 24") giclée print ready for framing from a single exclusive print run. Each print will be hand signed and numbered by Rex. Also, the team will sign your Special Edition game box and poster.

Kickstarter is not a store.

Pledge £500 or more
About $713

Your Name in Game

Get a name or phrase written somewhere in the game. When we know where all the possible locations are, we'll get in touch and see where you want it. Alternatively, scout out a location in the alpha build and we'll see if we can make it work. Some examples of potential locations are on a neon sign, lovingly carved into a tree, or maybe even an islander's retro t-shirt.

Note: There is a 40 character limit and we reserve the right to reject offensive text.

Kickstarter is not a store.

Pledge £1,000 or more
About $1,426

Your Face in Game

Send us an image and we'll fit it into the game somewhere. We'll send a list of options when we know them and you might end up with your face on a medieval jouster, your logo in a stained glass window, or a your cat shooting eye lasers in the amusement park.

Kickstarter is not a store.

Pledge £2,500 or more
About $3,564

Developer for a Day

Join the Foam Sword team for a day, asking all the questions you want, checking out everything we're working on, letting us know what you think, and hanging out with office cats of the day. We'll even let you pick one secret thing from the game that you can personally announce to the world.

At the end of the day you'll join the Foam Sword team and extended family for a celebratory meal followed by a one-of-a-kind immersive piano performance from Daniel Pemberton.

We will use your likeness and personal stories to shape a key (unannounced) character in the game and you will appear as them in the credits.